Victor

A brief reprieve from the spinning wheel

A dog prompting me to play

on the soft grass

at the end of the day

A ball

some wrestling

then lying on my back

Staring up

at an impossibly blue sky

deeper than the ocean

A constant canvas

I forget is there

Above the trees a balloon appears

the letter V

its red skin sparkling

as it twists its way

into the blue

I think about a boy

a boy named Victor

who turned six today

regretting the grip

that let his balloon slip away

Together, from blocks apart,

we watch

in awe

as his red V rises

against the ocean

until it loses shape

and we have to squint to see it

– surely, we still see it.

***

This is the third poem of my personal 30-day poetry challenge to break away from the machine to think about things that don’t matter. I have no idea what I’m doing. – Jim